


Gran Gran is Not Pleased

by IrisPlumeria



Series: Zutara Week 2019 - Trope City [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Arranged Marriage, Comedy, Courtship, Crush at First Sight, Engagement, F/M, Family Drama, Family Feels, Gift Giving, Grandparents & Grandchildren, Humor, Meet the Family, Memes, Tumblr Memes, Zutara Week, Zutara Week 2019, consensual arranged marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-23 17:14:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20011909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IrisPlumeria/pseuds/IrisPlumeria
Summary: “I stole Appa while Aang wasn’t looking, and asked your brother to cover for us while we make our escape to Hama’s dwellings in the Fire Nation. It’ll be the last place anyone would expect to find us, so I’m ready to go when you are!”In an alternate universe where the hundred year war never happened, Katara is about to meet her suitor Prince Zuko and Gran Gran is not happy about it.





	Gran Gran is Not Pleased

**Author's Note:**

> … Now I know what you’re thinking. I shouldn’t be writing a Zutara week one-shot when I still have other fics to complete, particularly the one I wrote for last year’s Zutara week and the Yuezula fic that I have been neglecting since femmeslash february, but please understand that writing fanfic helps be beat writers block over the head with a baseball bat. Please support my coping methods because I do want to finish those stories, it’s just squeezing in time to write them is hard when you’re working and sometimes need to take regular breaks from being online. Thank you for understanding if you have enjoyed my work before! 
> 
> If there’s two jokes you may not understand in this fic, please note it is referencing a meme. I know I’d have probably been better off leaving one of them out as a few of you might not get it outside the context, but I love memes and can’t control myself (plus if you live on tumblr you've probably seen them anyway). 
> 
> Happy Zutara Week folks! I spent a whole afternoon in 39 degree heat writing this fanfic so if you like it, a review and/or kudos would be most appreciated. Enjoy! :)

Gran Gran had heard the news about Katara’s upcoming nuptials and suffice to say she did not approve. She did not approve at all. 

“How could you force my granddaughter into an arranged marriage!” Hakoda nearly choked on his tea when Gran Gran slammed the door open and she had no sympathy for her daughter Kya when she squirmed under her mother’s gaze. “How could you!” 

“Mother, please-” Kya tried to explain, but her mother was having none of it. 

“You wouldn’t even be alive if I hadn’t run out on that sexist son of a polarbear dog my parents tried to force on me! How dare you put my granddaughter in the same position!”

“Mother…” Kya pleaded, but Gran Gran still wouldn’t listen. 

“I escaped the North Pole precisely because of this backwards tradition! Never in my life did I ever think the Southern Water Tribe would fall so low that they would sacrifice one of their daughters to an ash maker!” 

While the Avatar had left the world a hundred years ago due to an unfortunate accident that kept him frozen in ice until Katara and Sokka found him, his mother was still around to prevent a terrible war between the Fire Nation and the rest of the four nations.

However, this didn’t mean there wasn’t still bad blood between the four nations, and Gran Gran’s experiences of male firebenders hadn’t been very positive during her journey from the North Pole to the South Pole. It was up to the Avatar, who Gran Gran knew as Katara and Sokka’s young friend Aang, to help restore balance, bring harmony to the world and prevent another war from happening. 

While a noble cause, Gran Gran did not see why her daughter should be sacrificed to achieve peace! 

“Mother if you would just listen-” 

“And you!” Gran Gran pointed her finger at Hakoda. “I gave you my blessing because I trusted you with my daughter and her children! Why would you allow this to happen?” 

Hakoda sipped a glass of water before he answered: “Because Katara consented to the courtship.” 

Gran Gran stood there in shock for a few seconds. 

“Katara would never do such a thing!” she said. “When I told her what happened to me, she was outraged!” she fondly remembered her very young granddaughter threatening to beat up Master Pakku, and couldn’t picture Katara being anything but defiant in this situation. 

“Why don’t you go ask her why she agreed to meet Prince Zuko?” Kya suggested with a patient and kind smile. “If you sense any sort of doubt or anxiety from Katara about meeting him, let us know and we’ll contact the Fire Lord to make a different peace arrangement.” 

Hakoda nodded. “Contrary to what Aang might have said, nothing’s set in stone yet.” 

“Fine!” Gran Gran huffed. “I will see what Katara has to say!” 

Gran Gran grabbed the door so she could slam it behind her when she left, but in a split second she turned around and looked at Kya:

“I’m sorry for shouting and I love you.” 

“I love you too and I’m sorry you had to find out about Katara’s date this way.” Kya smiled as she looked into her mother’s kind eyes. 

“And you’re a wonderful father.” Gran Gran told Hakoda, whose cheeks turned dark red at the compliment. He mumbled a quiet ‘thank you’ before taking an embarrassed sip of his tea. 

Gran Gran nearly closed the door, before she declared in a loud, booming voice:

“But you’re both still wrong!” 

Kya winced when Gran Gran slammed the door, making Hakoda spit out his tea. 

* * *

“I stole Appa while Aang wasn’t looking, and asked your brother to cover for us while we make our escape to Hama’s dwellings in the Fire Nation. It’ll be the last place anyone would expect to find us, so I’m ready to go when you are!” 

Katara arched a delicate eyebrow, as if her grandmother had finally lost her mind. 

“I’m not leaving Gran Gran.” she said as she went back to putting away another fur coat she wore only on special occasions.

Katara grabbed the next one on the pile she had made on her bed and inspected the garment, trying to decide which one would be the best one to wear to her first meeting with Zuko. 

Gran Gran bristled at how casually her usually defiant and rebellious granddaughter reacted to her offer, but put aside her agitation to gently grab Katara’s hand and clutch it to her chest. 

“If you’re doing this just for the good of the South Pole, I want you to know that you don’t owe the Southern Water Tribe anything! You didn’t ask to be the Chief's daughter, so you don’t need to marry that man because it might be good for the Water Tribe.” Gran Gran squeezed Katara’s hand to let her know that she meant every word. “And if anyone says otherwise, Hama, Yugoda and I will protect you!” 

Gran Gran wasn’t stupid - she knew that the Water Tribes and the Fire Nation would come after them with a vengeance because the Water Tribe had too much to gain from this engagement and the Fire Nation would not let anyone dishonour their prince like that.

That didn’t matter to Gran Gran though, as keeping one girl safe, happy and free meant much more to her than what benefits a political alliance born out of a loveless marriage could bring her country. 

Katara smiled at Gran Gran and wrapped her arms around her middle. The old woman hadn’t realised how much her heart had been pounding in her chest, but she felt her heartbeat hum to a quieter and calmer beat. 

“I’m not doing this because I feel obligated to.” Katara whispered into Gran Gran’s ear, like she was telling her a secret. “I want to meet him.” 

Gran Gran broke from the hug to grab Katara by the shoulders and look her in the eye. “Why?” 

Katara giggled.

“I heard that when one of Fire Lord Ozai’s generals wanted to sacrifice an entire division of new recruits in battle, Prince Zuko stood up to him and passionately defended those soldiers.” she said. “His father replied by giving him a terrible scar and banishing him from the Fire Nation.” 

Gran Gran cocked an eyebrow at Katara.

“So? You want to marry a man you don’t know because you pity him?” 

Katara closed her eyes and breathed through her nose. “I’m not marrying him yet Gran Gran, that’s why I’m meeting him to see if I like him.” 

Gran Gran huffed. “That’s what my parents said when they wanted me to meet Pakku”. 

Katara rolled her eyes and continued to talk about Zuko in a wistful manner Gran Gran did not like:

“He was rejected by his father and abandoned by his mother, but even after all that hardship he still moved forward and did the right thing by helping his uncle and cousin take back the throne. People say he has a very rough exterior, but that he’s actually very kind and sweet once you get to know him.” 

That’s when it dawned on Gran Gran that she had heard of Prince Zuko before and had seen a swarm of swooning ladies gathered by a portrait of the sullen teen while visiting the market place.

Gran Gran didn’t think much of it at the time, Southern Water Tribe women often lost their minds at a scar or two because it was seen as a sign of bravery and valor, proof that one was willing to take risks to protect what was theirs or do what had to be done for the benefit of the tribe.

In Gran Gran’s opinion scars really didn’t make a difference to how attractive one was, but she didn’t agree with the Fire Nation’s belief that it was a mark of shame or dishonour. 

Gran Gran side-eyed Katara. 

“You just want to meet him because you think he’s hot!” Gran Gran pointed an accusing finger at Katara. The young lady stood there mulling over what her grandmother said, before responding: 

“Maybe so.” Gran Gran’s jaw dropped as her granddaughter went back to organising her wardrobe, smirking as if she hadn’t revealed how shallow she was. 

“I give up.” Gran Gran huffed, dropping her supplies and slamming her fur coat on the floor. She was getting to old for this nonsense! “Be a floozy! Do what you want! I don’t care anymore.”* 

“See you later Gran Gran!” 

“Ugh!”

Gran Gran was so incensed that she didn’t see Katara grabbing climbing gear and a set of clothes she wouldn’t mind getting dirty up in the mountains. The fact that Katara had a pretty good idea of where Gran Gran would have hidden Appa also didn’t work in the old woman’s favour. 

* * *

“You came!” 

Gran Gran huffed at her daughter’s reaction: “Of course I did, I’m not so petty I wouldn’t support my granddaughter.” 

Kya ignored that comment to say: “You look lovely. If we’re not careful Prince Zuko might decide he’d like to marry you instead.” 

“Oh hush before I ground you!” Gran Gran grinned, dusting off her shoulders as she admired her fancy robes.

She didn’t agree with this ‘courtship’ but that didn’t mean she couldn’t put on a nice outfit and her best qaurut, a headband that had been passed down through the family for generations!

“I’m still against this you know.” 

“But you haven’t met Katara’s suitor yet.” Kya chided her. 

“No, but so far I’m not liking what I’m seeing.”

Gran Gran pointed to the Fire Nation Royal family. From where she was sitting, she could see her son-in-law cracking jokes with Fire Lord Lu Ten, who ate up his wacky sense of humour like it was Gran Gran’s stewed sea prunes. Behind him, Gran Gran could see Lord Iroh, better known as The Dragon of the West, try to placate his grumpy brat of a nephew. 

“It’s so cold here and this room smells like prunes.” Prince Zuko blew cold air and tiny little flames out of his mouth. It reminded Gran Gran of a tiny little snapdragon. Gran Gran had no idea how anyone could see this whiny young man as a sexy bad boy, as handsome as he was in person. She hoped the artist was paid extra for their trouble. “I want to go back to the ship.”

“Patience, Prince Zuko. Some women like to play hard to get and if you like her, your union could be very beneficial to both nations.” 

“I think being an hour late to your date is not playing hard to get, I think it means she saw me and left.” Zuko bitterly pulled his cloak closer to his body, a dark cloud hovering over him. Gran Gran almost felt bad for the boy until she realised - 

“Gran Gran, Appa has gone missing!”

“Mum, I looked for Katara everywhere and she’s not in her room and her stuff is gone!” 

Katara took after her grandmother after all! Thank Tui and La! Had Gran Gran not been well practised in the art of diplomacy she would have danced up and down the halls in joy! She was so happy she didn’t even notice how panicked her daughter looked! 

“Everyone look for Katara, I want no stone unturned until she’s found!” Kya quietly ordered the guards and attendants that were present, not realising how good Fire Lord Lu Ten’s hearing was. 

“Pardon me my lady, but is Lady Katara is missing? Is she not coming?” Even though Gran Gran could hear the panic in the monarch’s voice, she didn’t feel any sympathy for him. Serves him right for trying to force two young people together against their will for his own gains!

“I knew it!” Prince Zuko shouted, hurling his cloak to the ground in a fit of rage. “I knew this was a waste of time!” 

Gran Gran could feel the tension in the air thicken as Kya started to get hot sweats down her brow, Hakoda started grinding his teeth together and Sokka and Aang shared a grimace. The guards and attendants, both Water Tribe and Fire Nation alike, fared no better as they started sharing and whispering their fears among one another. 

“Prince Zuko, we don’t know where Lady Katara is.” Lord Iroh tried to put a gentle hand on the boy’s shoulder, but his nephew rejected him. 

“Probably thanking Agni that she doesn’t have to meet me!” Gran Gran winced at how Zuko’s voice sounded hurt and crestfallen, as if he was holding back a sob. “It’s always the same. Mother left me, father didn’t want me and Mai left me to be with someone else! No one ever stays! They always leave!” 

When Zuko looked like he was going to break down, start crying and perhaps burn down the house in a fit of anguish, Fire Lord Lu Ten did something that took Gran Gran by surprise by taking the young prince in his arms. 

“Uncle and I will never leave you.” he said, stroking the back of his head as a gesture of comfort. “And I’m sure there’s a good explanation for Lady Katara’s absence. 

“Lu Ten’s right.” Uncle Iroh joined the group hug. “We’ll always be right behind you and we wouldn’t have agreed to this meeting if Lady Katara wasn’t a kind person. There must be a reason she’s so late!” 

Zuko sniffed. 

“You two are so embarrassing. I don’t need to be consoled like I’m a child.”

Gran Gran’s nose twitched when Prince Zuko said that as if he wasn’t about to just have a tantrum, but her heart wasn’t made of ice.

She could see how the other men had calmed the boy’s heart and what a troubled past the young man had. Gran Gran still didn’t think he was right for Katara and that he looked like the kind of person that would have grabbed Gran Gran by the scruff of her neck in a different lifetime, but a small part of her still wished this boy a bit of peace and happiness to make up for the suffering he went through. 

“But thank you.” Zuko said to Iroh and Lu Ten. “This girl had better have a good excuse for keeping me waiting.” 

Acting as if Katara had heard Zuko, the girl slammed the doors open, pausing only to spot Zuko in the crowd and rushed towards him as soon as she saw him. 

“I’m so sorry I’m late!” she said in between ragged breaths. “Getting down the mountain took longer than I thought it would.” 

Gran Gran’s sympathy for Prince Zuko plummeted after he looked at Katara from head to toe, clearly disgusted by her dishevelled appearance. As a prince on a diplomatic mission he knew better than to say what he was thinking, but Gran Gran felt certain he would have called her a filthy peasant had the circumstances been different. 

“Katara, you’re filthy! And look at your hair!” Katara’s usually luxurious locks were tied in a frayed looking braid and she looked like she had gotten lost in a dark, dirty cave. Kya, who worked very hard to get everything ready for the Fire Nation Royal Family’s visit, was mortified. “I can’t believe you kept our guests waiting because you wanted to go explore the mountains again! I did not raise you to be this rude!” 

Katara looked physically pained at her mother’s words, but gave her the classic seal-puppy dog eyes Gran Gran had seen her use since she was small. 

“I’m really sorry mum, I promise to get cleaned up and dressed straight away, but I have to do something first.” 

“What could possibly be more important than meeting the Fire Nation Royal family?” Kya looked so stressed and worn out, Gran Gran wanted to hug her daughter and tell her everything would be all right, but she had faith Katara would be able to put her mother’s mind at ease. 

“Giving Prince Zuko my present.” The entire room gawked at Katara like she had grown another head. 

“I beg your pardon?” 

“You wouldn’t let me leave the village this week, so I had to sneak out to get it.” Katara reached inside the bag she had been carrying and produced a shiny red gem. Her mother was too shocked to say anything, so she took it as permission to go up to Zuko and introduce herself. 

“Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, my name is Katara. Thank you for coming to visit us, I would like you to have this as a gift to welcome you to our tribe.” She outstretched her hands to hold the gem out to Zuko, who kept his distance and inspected the object with suspicion. 

“Is that… a ruby?” One couldn’t deny that the prince was curious though. 

“It’s actually a Tugtupite.” Katara grinned. “They’re usually pink, but sometimes you can find fiery red ones too. My friend Aang told me that you had a brooch your mother used to wear and that it was made out of a ruby that looked like this gem.” 

Zuko glared at Aang but said nothing as the boy whistled innocently and hid behind Sokka. 

“He said you were devastated when it got lost because it was one of the few possessions your mother left behind. When I was a little girl, my mother got so sick that for a long time I couldn’t even go visit her, so this necklace was all I had to feel like I was close to her.”

Gran Gran nearly got teary eyed when Katara touched the Water Tribe engagement necklace she had passed onto Kya, who had passed it down to Katara.

Pakku had given Kanna that necklace, but she didn’t see him in that piece of jewelry, she saw her determination to flee from an impossible situation and the strength she had to come out the other side happy and fulfilled, so she wanted Kya to have it so her sickly daughter would know that she could overcome anything. 

Gran Gran was so, so happy that it granted Kya the courage to live life to the fullest with her chronic illness and that it had allowed her to raise such a fine young woman. 

“I know that’s not the same and that you’re still searching the four nations for your mother, but I hope this will help you feel close to her until you find her.” Katara gently took Zuko’s hand and placed the Tugtupite inside his hand. “Sorry I couldn’t make the brooch myself, but mum wouldn’t let me out of her sight all week.” 

“Go get dressed at once!” Kya commanded, but Gran Gran could tell that she too was holding back tears. “You are not allowed to leave the village again until you have cleaned up and entertained our guests for the evening.” 

“Okay, okay!” Katara giggled. “I’m going! I’m sorry, I will make up for my lateness with a waterbending dance!” 

“You had better!” Mother and daughter grinned at each other, hardly noticing how Zuko’s golden eyes followed Katara’s every movement after she laid that stone in his hand, burning bright with a passion Gran Gran hadn’t seen in the young man before. 

“Um…” Zuko got their attention with a nervous cough. He avoided looking into Katara’s eyes, shyly glancing at the floor as soon as he got her attention. “Thank you.” 

Gran Gran watched how as soon as Katara chirped a pleased “you’re welcome!” and left to appease Kya, Zuko smiled for the first time since he came to the Southern Water Tribe. 

‘Now.’ Gran Gran thought. ‘Had he smiled like that in his painting I would have understood why the girls liked him.’ She could feel the tension in the room evaporate as quickly as it had appeared, the families of the potentially betrothed and all who knew and loved them starting to relax and chatter amongst themselves. 

In the corner of her eye she could see a giddy Lord Iroh nudge his son and whisper loud enough for everyone in the room to hear: “I think it’s love at first sight Lu Ten!” 

Zuko snapped out of his haze with scarlet cheeks and barked at his uncle: "Don’t be ridiculous! We just met!” but Gran Gran noticed how as soon as he denied his feelings, he went back to staring at the Tugtupite Katara searched high and low to find for him, holding it in his hands like it was the most precious thing in the world. 

Gran Gran rarely admitted she was wrong because stubbornness ran in her family. And while Prince Zuko hadn’t convinced her that he was 100% husband material, perhaps the young man would prove her wrong… 

* * *

Lord Iroh sighed in relief as he, Lu Ten and Zuko got ready for bed that night. The Southern Water Tribe Chief and his family were kind enough to set them up in a lovely house with plenty of warm furs to sleep in and a large supply of tea he was brewing as they spoke. 

“I could get used to this.” Lu Ten commented from his bed and smirked at Zuko. “When you get married, I’m visiting constantly and taking Niu with me.” 

“We’re not getting married, we just met!” Zuko snapped at his cousin, but pouted as he stared into his pillow. “I don’t even know… if she really likes me or is just being nice.” 

“Zuko.” Lu Ten said with an expression that suggested that he was so done with his cousin’s dramatics. “She climbed a freezing cold mountain and searched for a rare gemstone the night before she met you, so you could have something to remember your mother by. That’s not something people do to be nice or pleasant!” 

“Indeed…” Iroh said as he examined the Tugtupite. “I’d say that girl has quite the little crush on you Prince Zuko.” 

“What?” 

“Well, in the Water Tribe these stones symbolise unconditional love and passion, and they believe that its vibrations can open up any heart.” Iroh smirked as he gave the gem back to Zuko. “And I don’t even want to tell you about what it does for a man’s libido.” 

Zuko’s red hot face looked like it was about to go on fire before he buried his head under his pillow and groaned, still protectively holding the gem in his hand while his relatives laugh at him. This was going to be a long trip. 

**Author's Note:**

> Just some background info that may not be so obvious in the text itself: 
> 
> \- Zuko is still in his season 2 phase for this AU because he didn’t start his life changing road trip with Iroh until AFTER Lu Ten took the throne away from Ozai for trying to start up another war with the other nations!  
> \- Why Ozai was on the throne in the first place in an AU where Lu Ten is alive and well is something I may write in another fic, God willing I have time to write it!  
> \- Kanna, Hama and Yugoda are best friends in this AU and do cool stuff together (also Hama and Yugoda are married because um, I ship it).  
> \- I think Gran Gran is Hakoda’s mother and that’s usually the headcanon I stand by, but for the purpose of this AU I made her Kya’s mother instead (plus it’s never confirmed in canon which of them is Kanna’s child so my city now).  
> \- Just in case you aren’t trapped in meme hell “Be a slut! Do what you want!” and “Maybe so” are the memes I mentioned in my author’s notes before this fic started.  
> \- I don’t think Kanna truly hated Pakku in canon, but I think she would have resented his sexist attitude and her family’s lack of respect for her agency


End file.
